Special Students, Regular Classes

* I read your May 19 article about the fully included Down syndrome boy at Santa Ana High School. As the psychologist at El Dorado High School in the Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified School District, I am very proud of the program we have developed based on the inclusion model of mainstreaming special education students.

At El Dorado, we have approximately 20 students who fall into the categories of educationally retarded and multiply handicapped. Our students are mainstreamed four or five (out of six) periods a day into classes ranging from art, drama and auto shop to math, language arts and history.

Most of these students are accompanied by student aides, a few by adult aides, and they are provided with modified assignments and exams related to the subject matter of the classes they attend.

About three-quarters of our faculty have taken handicapped students into their classes, and over 30 regular education students have chosen to become student aides, as an elective class.

We also have a “special friends” club in which regular students and special education students have lunch and plan activities together. We had 80 students sign up for this.

We are very proud of our inclusion program and feel it is a model in Orange County for the integration of special-needs students with their peers who are not handicapped.

BARBARA K. HARTL

Placentia